In my talk on digital literacies I mentioned a ‘reciprocity economy’, and just wanted to expand on the idea. We are accustomed to the idea of the attention economy – it’s getting eyeballs that counts online. As each person develops their PLN online it seems to me that it’s not attention that is significant, but establishing reciprocity.
I have come to believe that your personal learning network (it probably doesn’t need the ‘learning’, it’s just your personal network) is increasingly the most valuable asset you will have. And that’s valuable as in ‘adds value to your life’, not economic value. It will help you with work, socialising, personal life, interests, hobbies, entertainment.
To deploy probably the most over-used analogy around, it’s like a garden – you’ve got to sow, tend and weed it to get value from it. But it’s more of a country garden, a bit organic and unplanned rather than the highly structured garden. It takes time and effort and you have to give something of yourself to it. (continues)